The Proper Attitude

Sitting near the back of the church affords me the opportunity to observe my fellow worshipers.  I don't do it all the time, but occasionally, something will jump out at me about these people who are becoming my second family and I think about it.

Today, I noticed how they prayed.  There are lots of ways to do it.  Some stand, head bowed.  Some kneel, backs straight, hands clasped tightly together.  Every now and then I see the hands straight up and together the way art most often portrays praying hands.  Some half-kneel - those people whose knees hurt when full weight is on them, so they take some of the pressure off by resting their backsides on the edge of the pew.  Still kneeling, but not the more formal straight back pose.  One couple is interesting...  he stands to pray while in the pew and she kneels, but when they go up to the altar for communion, he kneels and she stands.  One day I might get up the nerve to ask them about that.

Personally, I favor the half-kneel (achy knees, don't 'cha know), with hands loosely clasped.  Sometimes head bowed, sometimes looking up, sometimes straight ahead.  This is the attitude I adopt for church.

But in my everyday life, prayer happens sitting down, standing at the sink, lying in bed in the middle of the night, driving to work or waiting for lunch.  Sometimes in the shower or mowing the lawn.  Lots of times it happens while cleaning the pool or cooking dinner. 

It's not really something a person is taught.  It comes in time. 

When I was a young teen, I loved going to garage sales.  And book stores.  Browsing the rickety card tables loaded down with dog-eared books or the pristine pages sitting on organized shelves... it didn't matter to me.  I just loved books.  I don't remember exactly where I got Papa's Daughter back then.  I suspect a bookstore as I remember crisp pages at some point, but as time went by, the pages were bent, the spine broken and bits of the cover fell off.  It was a well-loved, oft-read book.  I can't tell you exactly what it was about... a teenaged girl named Button and her discovery of boys and straining against the strictures of her father, the preacher, I think.  But the thing that jumped out at me even then was her mother's relationship with God.  She talked to him out loud while setting the table, making the beds, hanging the laundry - like a friend who'd come to visit and she was filling him in on all the news, her worries, her happiness, as she went about the business of her day.  One day, I thought all those years ago, I want to have that kind of relationship with God. 

In the book, Mama was considered a bit of a rebel.  She didn't assume the proper attitude for prayer, which was a bit scandalous as she was the preacher's wife.  But I think she followed the commandment to pray without ceasing to the letter.  God was not a Sunday-and-religious-holiday kind of God to her, but a constant companion in her everyday life.

And today, I realized that I had evolved in my own relationship to be very much like the one in the book.  I talk to him all the time.  Mostly in silence, but sometimes aloud.  And I find that if I listen, He answers as well.  Sometimes it's not clear until later or the response I expected, but He always answers.

I believe that I have learned the proper attitude.

Nervous Glee

You might have to turn up the volume, but you can hear the instructor talking and ZBoy laughing with glee as the horse carries him around in a circle at a trot.  Boo, the instructor said, "I'm glad you're not nervous!"  And the Boy replied, "Oh, I'm nervous - but I'm having a GREAT time!"

He did not want me to post this on YouTube to upload here.  He was okay with it being on the blog though.  After some mean comments about a video I posted of him on YouTube, he didn't want to go there again.  Can't say as I blame him. 

Horses, horses, horses!

When ZBoy turned 12 last April, his grandparents gifted him with a Groupon for two horse-back riding lessons at a local stable.  Between camp and a somewhat hotter than usual summer, we decided to wait until August to redeem (It couldn't possibly be hotter in August than it was in June and July could it???  Well.. yes - it could.).  We drove out to the stable, but it wasn't clear where we were supposed to go, so we just parked and looked around.

As we rounded the corner of the stable, we found the office (with no one in it) and discovered a couple of horses out of their stalls being groomed.  The one in the foreground was huge.  His ears brushed the rafters of the stable.  The one further down was harder to gage.  Z turned to look at me with large eyes, saying "they're a lot bigger than I thought they were!!!"  It did make him quite nervous and he was definitely having second thoughts about climbing up on top of one.

The horse further down the way turned out to be the one he would ride and as we approached, he saw that the back of this horse was only as high as the instructor's shoulders and his.  Not nearly as scary as the giant we passed.  His instructor was a personable young woman named Boo and you could tell that she just LOVES teaching kids about horses.  It took a couple of saddle changes to find one that Z could ride comfortably, but only one shot at finding a helmet to fit his head.   As Boo saddled Honey (odd name for a male horse), she explained about the parts she was putting on and when Z asked about the bridle and bit, she demonstrated by telling him to put his fingers in his mouth to stretch it out, then to pull on one side or the other.  His head followed the pull, and on horses, their bodies follow their heads.  So if he pulled on the rein on one side, the horse's head would turn and his body would follow.  Made sense to me!  And more importantly, it made sense to Z.

They walked out to the ring and once they got out there, Boo showed him how to walk around the horse and explained about how horses see.  The conversation continued once he mounted and as they adjusted stirrups and talked about how to sit and how to use your feet in the stirrups.

She explained about reins, and how the mane is a good thing to grab onto because of the fat layer underneath...  and then, with a line attached, she started the horse walking around in a circle so Z could get a feel for what riding a horse was like.



After a couple of rounds, they begain some balance exercises.  Arms out to the side, both arms straight up, alternating arms up and down... ZBoy did very well!

The moved on to posting, which is what keeps your rear end from being bashed to death while riding.  It's using your legs with the motion of the horse to ease the up and down motion.  You stand up in the stirrups, legs bent and alternate between standing and sitting.  It does, however, give your legs a heck of a workout!!!  Z got so good at it that Boo decided to go ahead and let him start working on steering.  She kept him on the line for a couple of rounds, telling him what to do to get the horse to go where he wanted him to, then removed the line and told Z to ride towards a light post, then turn left, ride to the gate, turn right, go right up to the fence, then turn again.  It wasn't perfect, but by the time the lesson ended, Z could get Honey to go pretty much where he wanted him to go. 

In fact, Boo was confident enough in ZBoy's progress to let him ride untethered all the way back up to the stable.  There he dismounted, grinning like a fool, and he and Boo talked about his lesson and how well he did.  He thanked Honey for his patience and Boo for her help, then accompanied me to the car, absolutely glowing with joy.  We need to call next week to schedule the second lesson.  Since this was his first time on a horse, they recommended separating the lessons by a bit to let his body recover because he was going to be sore!  I want to make sure Darling Man gets to come next time (he had to work unexpectedly) because he NEEDS to see this. 

We celebrated with lunch at Crispers - and he's STILL grinning!